Washington Post Looks At India’s Food Security Programs

Aug 21, 2013

Noting “India’s subsidized-grain program has been a pillar of the world’s largest democracy for decades, and in its current form it helps sustain more than 400 million rural villagers and urban slum dwellers with low-cost grains and other staples such as sugar and kerosene,” the Washington Post reports, “India is preparing to launch a massive transformation of the program that would double its size and add a guarantee that two-thirds of India’s population would be granted a legal right to food.” The newspaper writes, “If, as expected, the measure is approved by Parliament in the coming days, India will have committed to one of the largest and costliest entitlement programs in the world — at a time when its economic growth is slowing and its food supply faces pressure from a growing population and diminishing land and water resources.” The Washington Post examines support for and opposition to the plan, as well as challenges to its implementation (Gowan, 8/18).